The Unity of the Body (2:11-22)

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Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (2:11-22)

It is a part of sinful human nature to build barriers that shut out other people. In New Testament times one of the greatest barriers was between slaves and freemen, especially between slaves and their owners. Those who were free looked down on slaves as being inferior, slightly above animals. Many slaves looked on their masters with contempt and resentment. Consequently, one of the greatest problems of the early church was in getting Christian slave owners and Christian slaves to treat each other as spiritual equals.

For the most part, women were also looked down on as inferior beings. Husbands often treated their wives little better than they did their slaves. When a wife became a Christian, her entire life, outlook, and value system changed. An unbelieving husband would likely divorce her simply because she had made such a radical decision without his consent.

The Greeks were so proud of their culture and supposed racial superiority that they considered everyone else to be barbarians, a belief to which Paul alludes in Romans 1:14 and Colossians 3:11. The Greek language was considered to be the language of the gods. The Roman statesman Cicero wrote, “As the Greeks say, ‘All men are divided into two classes, Greeks and barbarians.’” Livy, another ancient Roman, wrote that Greeks constantly waged a truceless war against people of other races, all of whom they held to be barbarians. Because of such feelings, the early church faced continuing barriers not only between believing Gentiles and Jews but between believing Greeks and other Gentile believers.

In his book The Cross of Peace Sir Philip Gibbs writes,

Disunity among His own people has always been a special heartache to God. In His intercessory prayer for His disciples in John 17, Jesus prayed three times that they would be one (vv. 11, 21, 22) and again “that they may be perfected in unity” (v. 23). Jesus’ prayers were always answered because He always prayed according to His Father’s will. His prayer for the unity of His people has already been answered positionally, because every person who has believed in Him has been spiritually made one with Him and with every other believer from every age. Positionally we are one in Jesus Christ. “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (12:12-13).

Just as a physical body has a common principle of life flowing through it, so does the Body of Christ, His church. The Spirit of God puts the life of God in the soul of every person who trusts in Jesus Christ and unites that person with every other believer in the same eternal realm. In the kingdom of Jesus Christ all barriers come down. In Him there are no walls, no classes, no castes, no races, no gender, no distinctions of any sort.

Practically, however, the truth is often tragically different. In the same letter to Corinth in which Paul so strongly declared the positional unity of believers he also strongly rebuked the Corinthians for their practical disunity. “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. … for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” (1 Cor. 3:1, 3; cf. 1:11-13).

Only about twenty years ago the pastor of prosperous white church in a southern U. S. town became burdened for the community at large. The black janitor of his church was a gracious and obedient Christian, and the two men began a weekly Bible study and prayer time together. After a few months the church board approached the pastor and told him he had to stop having fellowship with “that man” because it was bad for the church’s image. When he told them he could not do that because he felt fellowshipping with and ministering to him was the Lord’s will, virtually no store in town would do business with him. He could not buy clothes, gas, or even groceries. Before long he had a nervous breakdown and was taken to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in a nearby large city, where on the second day he dived out of the window and killed himself.

A far different story, however, is that of a contemporary African church, composed of believers from various tribes who had been the bitterest of enemies for countless generations. A missionary who was officiating at a communion service in the church was deeply moved when he looked around him. He saw the chief of the Ngoni, along with many other members of that tribe. He also saw members of the Senga and Tumbuka tribes—singing, praying, and participating in the Lord’s Supper together. In former years each of these tribes loved to brag about how many men, women, and children of the other tribes they had killed, raped, or maimed. The old chief could remember the days when the young Ngoni warriors had gone out to attack their enemies. They had left behind a trail of burned and devastated villages and had come home with their spears bloodied with the death of Senga and Tumbuka people. But as they once were divided by the spilling of each other’s blood, they are now united by the blood of their common Savior, Jesus Christ.

That is the kind of unity Jesus Christ gives to His people and that He commands them to maintain, “being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). “There is one body and one Spirit,” Paul goes on to say, “just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (vv. 4-6). The church is to manifest that oneness “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ” (v. 13).

ALIENATION APART FROM CHRIST

Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (2:11-12)

The disunity within the Ephesian church was primarily between Jewish and Gentile believers. But, as Paul later reminded them, the very “mystery of Christ” that had “been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” is “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:4-6). All differences were set aside in favor of common unity in the Holy Spirit of God. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26-28; cf. Rom. 10:12). The church’s unity is not organizational but spiritual. This passage focuses on the idea of that spiritual oneness. The terms “both … one” (Eph. 2:14), “one new man” (v. 15), “one body” (v. 16), “both” (vv. 14, 16, 18), and “together” (vv. 21-22) all indicate the apostle’s emphasis.

It is often helpful, and sometimes necessary, to focus on particular national, racial, religious, or ethnic groups for evangelistic work and to devise approaches for a given group that are somewhat unique. But it is unfortunate that believers who come from such groups are often never assimilated into existing churches.

God sovereignly chose the Jews to be His special people. “You only,” He told Israel, “have I chosen among all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). God chose the Jews not only to receive His special blessings but also to be a channel of those blessings to others. From the beginning it was God’s plan that through Abraham and his descendants, the Jews, “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Israel was called to be a vessel through which the knowledge of God would be spread to the entire world.

Unfortunately, Israel never fulfilled that calling. She preferred to condemn the Gentiles rather than witness to them. A rabbinic writer tells of an incident that explains the common Jewish attitude toward Gentiles. A certain Gentile woman came to Rabbi Eleazar, confessed that she was sinful, and told him that she wanted to become righteous. She wanted to be accepted into the Jewish faith because she had heard that the Jews were near to God. The rabbi is said to have responded, “No. You cannot come near,” and then shut the door in her face.

Peter had such an attitude of disdain for Gentiles before he had the vision of the unclean animals that the Lord commanded him to eat (Acts 10:9-16). Peter later explained to the Roman centurion Cornelius and his household: “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean” (v. 28; cf. Gal. 2:11-14).

God commanded the church to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19), and to be His “witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). It has always been God’s plan to extend His love, grace, forgiveness, and mercy to every person on earth.

God made Israel distinct for two reasons. First, He wanted the world to see and notice them, to realize that they did not live and act like other men. Second, He wanted them to be so distinct that they would never be amalgamated with other peoples. He gave them such strict dietary, clothing, marriage, ceremonial, and other laws that they could never fit easily into another society. Those distinctions, like the special blessings God gave them, were intended to be a tool for witness. But Israel continually perverted them into a source for pride, isolation, and self-glory.

As Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians later in this letter, the church has a similar calling to be distinct from the world: to “walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,” but to “lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,” and to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (4:17, 22-24). Yet the church also faces the danger of proudly perverting special blessing into a means for pride, isolation, and self-satisfaction instead of using it humbly to witness God’s grace and goodness to the world.

Jonah typified the common Jewish attitude toward Gentiles. When God called him to preach to Nineveh, the prophet fled in the opposite direction. After he finally obeyed the Lord and saw the whole city repent because of his preaching, “it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry,” because God, in His grace and compassion, spared the wicked Gentiles of Nineveh—just as Jonah knew God would do if they repented (Jonah 4:1-2).

Like Jonah, most Jews did not want to share their gracious and loving God with anyone else. They accepted their divine blessings but not their divine mission—to be a light to the Gentile nations (Isa. 42:6; 49:6; 60:3; 62:1-2).

Jewish contempt for Gentiles often had justification from a human standpoint, because throughout their history they suffered recurrent oppression and persecution from Gentiles—who frequently looked on Jews as a slave people to be exploited. As in our own day under the Nazis, Jews have often been derided as enemies of the human race.

But instead of reflecting the gracious love and forgiveness of the God who called and blessed them, the Jews most often vented their own resentment and hatred back against their persecutors. Like Jonah, they wanted Gentiles to be judged, not forgiven. Some Jews believed that God created the Gentiles to use as fuel for hell. Many believed that He loved Israel and hated every other nation. Consequently, some Jewish women refused to help a non-Jewish woman give birth, because to do so would make them responsible for bringing another despised Gentile into the world.

When a Jew entered Palestine he would often shake the dust off his sandals and clothing in order not to contaminate the Holy Land with Gentile dust. Because Samaritans were partly Gentile, most Jews would go far out of their way to avoid traveling through Samaria. If a young Jewish man or woman married a Gentile, their families would have a funeral service, symbolizing the death of their child as far as religion, race, and family were concerned. For fear of contamination, many Jews would not enter a Gentile home or allow a Gentile to enter theirs.

For many hundreds of years the animosity between Jew and Gentile had festered and grown. Although they were not always in open conflict, their mutual contempt continued to widen the gulf between them.

Traces of that animosity were found in the early church. The practical outworking of positional unity was not easy. Many Jewish believers thought it inconceivable that a Gentile could be saved unless he first became a proselyte Jew—by keeping the laws of Moses and by becoming circumcised if he were a man. These Judaizers became so influential in the church that a special council was called in Jerusalem to deal with their teaching (see Acts 15). Even after the clear decision of the council that a Gentile did not have to become a Jew to be saved, many Jewish Christians continued to believe otherwise. Despite God’s special revelation to him in this regard (Acts 10) and his own participation in the Jerusalem council, Peter was intimidated by certain Judaizers to compromise the gospel. For that reason, Paul “opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned” (Gal. 2:11). There is only one gospel, the gospel of grace. Therefore, as Paul had warned, “Even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).

Converted Jews had difficulty breaking from the ceremonial laws such as Sabbath observance and the eating of unclean animals. Converted Gentiles had difficulty with such things as eating meat that had been offered as a sacrifice to a pagan deity. In many such ways, Jewish and Gentile believers stumbled over their former traditions and beliefs, and in doing so they also stumbled over each other. What was of extreme importance to one group was inconsequential to the other. In Ephesians 2:11-22 Paul confronts that problem from two sides. First, he describes the former social and spiritual alienation of Jews and Gentiles, and then he describes their new spiritual unity in Jesus Christ.

This important section begins with the word therefore, indicating that the next line of thought regarding the new identity of these Gentile Christians is built on what Christ has done to give them life and eternal blessing, as described in verses 1-10. It is as if Paul is calling them to be so grateful for their deliverance from their old situation that they come to fully appreciate their new situation of union with all other believers. Nothing more inspires gratitude in a saved sinner than a look back to the pit from which he has come.

SOCIAL ALIENATION

The first kind of alienation was social: formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Paul calls his readers the Gentiles in the flesh in order to emphasize the physical, external nature of the distinction, and he calls on them to remember who they had been before coming to Christ. As far as Jews were concerned they were outcasts, referred to as the Uncircumcision, a term of derision, defamation, and reproach. David called Goliath an “uncircumcised Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:26). Because Gentiles did not have the physical mark of circumcision to set them apart as the people of God, many Jews had come to consider them to be inferior and, in fact, of no concern to God. Paul carries a tone of disdain for such Jewish hatred, as evidenced in his choice of words to describe Jews—the so-called “Circumcision” (lit., “in the flesh, made by hand”). He thereby takes exception to Jewish boasting by emphasizing that circumcision is also only external (cf. Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4; Ezek. 44:7).

But circumcision had never been a mark of personal relationship to God, for Jews or anyone else. Paul makes much of that truth in the book of Romans. “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who in one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29; cf. Gal. 5:6; 6:15). Later in the Romans epistle he points out that Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, was saved before he was circumcised (4:9-12). The separation of the two groups from each other was symbolized by the mark of circumcision, a purely physical distinction.

SPIRITUAL ALIENATION

A much more important Gentile alienation was spiritual: remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Although there was no moral difference between Jew and Gentile (as vv. 1-10 show), there was a difference in God’s dealing with them as men. Before Christ came, the Jews were the people of promise from God, but the Gentiles as a people were cut off from God in five different ways.

First, they were Christless, separate from Christ, the Messiah. They therefore had no messianic hope of a Savior and Deliverer. Their history had no purpose, no plan, and no destiny—except the ultimate judgment of God, of which they were unaware. The popular Stoic philosophers taught that history repeated itself in three-thousand-year cycles. At the end of each cycle the universe is burned up and then reborn to repeat the same futile pattern.

Pagan deities were but extensions of men’s own weaknesses and sins. The goddess Diana, or Artemis, who was the patron deity of Ephesus, was not depicted as a beautiful and gracious creature but as an ugly beast, with nipples hanging down on which her brood of little beasts suckled. Without exception, pagan idolatry has always been forbidding and repulsive when shown in its true form. It thrives on fear and despair rather than trust and hope, because its demonic gods are wicked and capricious rather than holy and faithful. Although God had them in His eternal, sovereign plan to be united with Christ through faith, they had no such relationship as yet.

Second, the Gentiles were spiritually alienated because they were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. God had made His chosen people into a theocracy, a nation of whom He Himself was King and Lord. He gave that nation His special blessing, protection, and love. He gave them His covenants, His law, His priesthood, His sacrifices, His promises, and His guidance (see Deut. 32:9-14; 33:27-29; Isa. 63:7-9; Amos 3:2). The psalmist said that God “has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His ordinances, they have not known them” (147:20). Ezekiel’s description of God’s special care of Israel is powerful:

Had the Gentiles accepted the true God they, too, could have been a part of that blessed nation. But because they rejected God, they forfeited His national blessing. They had no God-blessed community or kingdom and no divine benefactor. They received no special blessing or protection, because they were outside the dominion of God.

Third, the Gentiles were spiritually alienated because they were without a covenant with God, strangers to the covenants of promise. The supreme covenant of promise was the one given to Abraham: “I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2-3; 17:7; 26:3-5; 28:13-15). Inherent within that one great covenant were the Mosaic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants—and even the New Covenant (]er. 31:33). The covenant with Abraham surrounded and determined all of God’s dealing with Israel (Rom. 9:4).

It should be clarified that a divine covenant is an agreement in which God binds Himself to carry out His personal promise to His people, to redeem them from sin and bless them forever. Faith and obedience are the marks of the person who experiences the fulfillment of the covenant.

Within the covenants God gave and renewed His promises to bless, prosper, multiply, save, and redeem Israel. Within them He promised to give His people a land, a kingdom, and a King; and to those who believed in Him He promised eternal life and heaven.

Fourth, the Gentiles were spiritually alienated because they were hopeless, having no hope. Those who have no Christ, no commonwealth, and no covenants of promise also have no hope. True hope can be based only on a true promise, on confidence in someone who can perform what he promises. Hope is a profound blessing that gives meaning and security to life. Living without hope of future joy and enrichment reduces man to a piece of meaningless protoplasm. Hope is the consummation of life, the confident assurance that we have a blessed future in the plan of God. The saddest feature of Job’s great lament is found in these words: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to an end without hope” (Job 7:6). The opposite of that pessimistic outlook is the joyous truth celebrated among the Jews and stated succinctly in Psalm 146:5—“How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God!” “The hope of Israel” (Acts 28:20) was the hope of eternal salvation and glory. Jeremiah uses the term “the hope of Israel” as a title for God, parallel in meaning to Savior (Jer. 14:8; 17:13). The Gentiles had no hope such as that expressed by the psalmist: “For Thou art my hope; O Lord God, Thou art my confidence from my youth” (71:5).

If someone offered you a million-dollar business loan, you would want to be sure he actually had that much money to lend. You would also want to be sure he was a man of his word, that he was credible. If he did not have sufficient money or if he did not keep his word, his promise would be worthless, and no reasonable person would take hope in it.

Israel was able to have complete hope in God’s promises because He had every resource at His disposal and because He cannot lie. They had God’s promises, and they knew He was able and trustworthy to fulfill them. The fact that they often failed to hope in those promises was due to their own unfaithfulness, not God’s.

The Gentiles, however, had no such promises and therefore had no ground for hope. Most Gentiles of Paul’s day either thought that death ended all existence or that it released the spirit to wander aimlessly in some nether world throughout the rest of eternity. Death brought only nothingness or everlasting despair. The Greek philosopher Diogenes said, “I rejoice in sport in my youth. Long enough will I lie beneath the earth bereft of life, voiceless as a stone, and shall leave the sunlight which I love, good man though I am. Then shall I see nothing more. Rejoice, O my soul, in thy youth.” That is the basic philosophy of many people in our own day, reflected in such sayings as, “Grab all the gusto you can” and “You only go around once.”

Fifth, and most importantly, the Gentiles were spiritually alienated because they were without God [atheos] in the world. It was not that they were intellectual atheists, because most of them believed in many gods. Some were pantheists, believing that divinity was in everything, animate and inanimate. On Mars Hill Paul noted that the Greeks of Athens were “very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD’” (Acts 17:22-23). That shrine was erected in case they had missed a god!

The problem was not that the Gentiles had no god but that they did not have the true God. Though believers have many hardships and trials in the present sinful world and are continually surrounded by Satan’s system, they have the sure hope of a future world that is sinless and perfect. But to be caught in that evil system without God is to be hopeless. Paul reminded the Gentile converts in Galatia that, before they came to know the Lord, they “were slaves to those which by nature are no gods” (Gal. 4:8), which is why every person without Christ is without hope (1 Thess. 4:13).

The Gentiles were without God in the world because they did not want Him. The Lord did not reject the Gentiles, “for there is no partiality with God” (Rom. 2:11). They did not have God’s law given to them on stone tablets as did the Jews, but they had it written in their hearts and consciences (Rom. 2:15). They had the revelation of His nature “evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:19-20). The Gentiles rejected God by suppressing the truth about Himself that He had made abundantly evident. The problem was that, “even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (v. 21).

God’s purpose in calling the Jews as His holy people was to send them as His missionaries to the Gentiles, to call all nations back to Himself in grace and love. The Jews, however, were no more faithful to their greater light than the Gentiles were to their lesser. Sadly, many Christians are not faithful to their still greater Light, “the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9; cf. Rom. 1:18-21).

There will never be an end to alienation until Christ returns and by His own power breaks down the barriers of separation. Apart from Christ there not only can be no harmony with God but no harmony among men.

UNITY IN CHRIST

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (2:13-18)

Those who formerly were far off were the Gentiles who had come to Christ. Far off was a common Jewish term used in rabbinical writings to describe Gentiles, those who were far away from the true God (cf. Isa. 57:19; Acts 2:39). Jews, on the other hand, considered themselves and their converts to be brought near to God because of their covenant relation to Him and the presence of His Temple in Jerusalem. But in Christ every person, Jew and Gentile alike, is brought near to God by the blood of Christ. And that nearness is not an external, dispensational, national, geographic, or ceremonial nearness—but is a spiritual intimacy of union with the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 1:24).

The root cause of strife, discord, antagonism, enmity, hate, bitterness, fighting, war, conflict, and every other form of disunity and division is sin. The reason there is always perfect harmony in the Godhead is that there is no sin in the Godhead. Perfect holiness produces perfect harmony. And the only solution for divisions among men is the removal of sin, which Jesus Christ accomplished by the shedding of His own blood. Those who trust in His atoning work are freed from sin now in their new nature and will be practically and permanently freed from sin in their new bodies when they meet the Lord. The cleansing value of the blood of Christ immediately washes away the penalty of sin and ultimately washes away even its presence.

Because in Christ the great foundational barrier of sin has been removed, every other barrier has been removed as well. Those who are one in Christ are one in each other—whether they realize it or act like it or not (1 Cor. 6:17). The purpose of the Lord’s Table is to remind us of the sacrifice our Lord made not only to bring us to Himself but also to each other.

By removing our sin, Christ gives us peace with each other and access to God.

PEACE WITH GOD AND WITH HIS PEOPLE

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; (2:14-17)

The Greek text here has only one pronoun, autos (He), but it is in the emphatic position, as reflected by the addition of Himself in many English translations. The writer emphasizes that Jesus alone is our peace (cf. Isa. 9:6); there is no other source. What laws, ordinances, ceremonies, sacrifices, and good deeds could not do to make peace between men and God, Jesus did. Those things could neither bring men into harmony with God or with each other. In the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, Jesus accomplished both.

Just as sin is the cause of all conflict and division, it is also the enemy of all peace and harmony. Built into wickedness is the impossibility of peace. Sin is basically selfishness, and selfishness is basically divisive and disruptive. We cannot always have what we want without infringing on what someone else wants or needs. We cannot always have our own way without interfering with someone else’s way.

James said, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” Games 4:1-3).

Peace comes only when self dies, and the only place self truly dies is at the foot of Calvary. “I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul said; “and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

During World War II a group of American soldiers was exchanging fire with some Germans who occupied a farm house. The family who lived in the house had run to the barn for protection. Suddenly their little three-year-old daughter became frightened and ran out into the field between the two groups of soldiers. When they saw the little girl, both sides immediately ceased firing until she was safe. A little child brought peace, brief as it was, as almost nothing else could have done.

Jesus Christ came as a babe to earth, and in His sacrifice on the cross He Himself became peace for those who trust in Him. His peace is not temporary but permanent. He made both groups, Jews (those who were “near”) and Gentiles (those who were “far off”), into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.

In Jesus Christ, a Jew is no longer distinct from a Gentile as far as religion is concerned. In fact, since A.D. 70, when the Temple was destroyed, true religious Judaism ceased to exist. Not only was the place of sacrifice destroyed, but so were all the genealogical records on which priestly descent was based. Likewise, a Gentile in Christ is no longer distinct as far as his spiritual condition is concerned. His paganism is gone, his unbelief is gone, his hopelessness is gone, and his godlessness is gone.

For those in Christ, the only identity that matters is their identity in Him. There is no Jewish or Gentile Christianity, black or white Christianity, male or female Christianity, or free or slave Christianity. There is only Christianity. Our one Lord has only one church.

The barrier of the dividing wall alludes to the separation of the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the Temple. Between that court and the Court of the Israelites was a sign that read, “No Gentile may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.” This physical barrier illustrated the barrier of hostility and hate that also separated the two groups. As we learn from the book of Acts, even a Jew who brought a Gentile into the restricted part of the Temple risked being put to death. Although Paul had not done so, certain Jews from Asia accused him of taking Trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, into the Temple. They would have stoned Paul to death had he not been rescued by Roman soldiers (Acts 21:27-32).

God had originally separated Jews from Gentiles (cf. Isa. 5:1-7; Matt. 21:33) for the purpose of redeeming both groups, not for saving the Jews alone. He placed the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple for the very purpose of winning Gentiles to Himself. It was meant to be a place for Jewish evangelism of Gentiles, a place for winning proselytes to Judaism and of thereby bringing them “near.” It was that court, however, that the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day used as “a robbers’ den” (Mark 11:17) rather than as a place of witness.

Christ forever broke down (the Greek aorist tense signifies completed action) every dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances. When Jesus died on the cross He abolished every barrier between man and God and between man and his fellow man. The greatest barrier between Jew and Gentile was the ceremonial law, the Law of commandments contained in ordinances. The feasts, sacrifices, offerings, laws of cleanliness and purification, and all other such distinctive outward commandments for the unique separation of Israel from the nations were abolished.

That God’s moral law was not abolished is clear from the phrase contained in ceremonies. His moral law reflects His own holy nature and therefore can never change (cf. Matt. 5:17-19). That is the law which for the Jews was summarized in the Ten Commandments and which for all men is written on their hearts (Rom. 2:15) and still commanded of them (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom. 13:8-10). Jesus summarized God’s moral law still further by declaring, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you” (John 13:34). The Ten Commandments, like all of God’s moral laws, are but the structured and particularized love that God still requires (James 2:8).

All the ceremonial laws which distinguished and separated Jews from Gentiles were obliterated. Before Christ those groups could not eat together because of restricted foods, required washings, and ceremonial contamination. Now they could eat anything with anyone. Before Christ they could not worship together. A Gentile could not fully worship in the Jewish Temple, and a Jew would not worship in a pagan temple. In Christ they now worshiped together and needed no temple or other sacred place to sanctify it. All ceremonial distinctions and requirements were removed (cf. Acts 10:9-16; 11:17-18; Col. 2:16-17), that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. The emphasis is again on in Himself, affirming that this new unity can occur only when men are united in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Kainos (new) does not refer to something recently completed, such as a new car rolling off the assembly line—one of many other cars just like it. This new refers to a difference in kind and quality, to a completely new model, unlike anything that existed before. The new person in Christ is not simply a Jew or Gentile who now happens to be a Christian. He is no longer a Jew or Gentile but only a Christian. Every other characteristic is “former” (see v. 11). Paul summed it up when he said, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Rom. 10:12-13).

Another story from World War II is that of a group of American soldiers who lost their buddy in battle. They carried his body to the only cemetery in the area, which happened to be Catholic. When the priest was told that the dead man was not Catholic he said, “I am sorry, but he cannot be buried here.” The disheartened and discouraged soldiers decided to do what they thought was next best, and during the night they buried their comrade just outside the cemetery fence. They returned the next morning to pay their last respects, but they could not find a grave outside the fence. When they told the priest of their quandary, he said, “The first part of the night I stayed awake sorry for what I told you. And the second part of the night I spent moving the fence.”

When Jesus Christ broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, He moved the fence, in order that in Himself He might make the two into one new man. No person who comes to Him will be excluded, and no person who is included will be spiritually distinct from any other. In His flesh points specifically to Jesus’ death on the cross, through which He nullified, annulled, made of no effect, and invalidated (abolished, katargeō) the feud, discord, and alienation (enmity, echthra), thus establishing peace, as already indicated in verse 14.

The words and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross demonstrate not only that Jew and Gentile (both is masculine, clearly referring to men) are brought together but that together they are brought to God. Reconciliation to each other is inseparable from reconciliation to God. As both are brought to God, they are brought to each other. The death of Christ accomplished perfectly what God intended—bringing men to Himself. Verse 13 points to the blood of Christ, verse 15 focuses on the flesh of the dying Savior, and now in verse 16 Paul specifically mentions the place (the cross) where the blood was shed and the flesh was slain. How did the cross accomplish such reconciliation? It put to death the enmity between men and God (cf. Rom. 5:1, 10).

The hostility between men and God was ended in the sacrifice of Christ. He was the One who received the judicial sentence of God for sin. He paid the price of death which God required and thereby satisfied divine justice (cf. 2 Cor. 5:20). He became “a curse” for sinners (Gal. 3:13) and provided reconciliation of the believing sinner to God and to all other repentant sinners, regardless of race.

Reconcile is a rich term (apokatallassō) which holds the idea of turning from hostility to friendship. The double use of prepositions as prefixes (apo, kata) emphasizes the totality of this reconciliation (cf. Col. 1:19-23).

Man cannot even reconcile himself to his fellow man, much less to God. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:8-10). Apart from Christ every person is helpless, sinful, and an enemy of God. As Paul says in another epistle, “It was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in [Christ], and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:19-20). The Scottish commentator John Eadie wrote, “The cross which slew Jesus slew also the hostility between man and God. His death was the death of that animosity.” The cross is God’s answer to Judaizing, racial discrimination, segregation, apartheid, anti-Semitism, bigotry, war, and every other cause and result of human strife. This is the great mystery of Ephesians 3:6, “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”

The One who “Himself is our peace” (v. 14) came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. Euangelizē (preached) literally means to bring or announce good news, and is almost always used in the New Testament of proclaiming the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. From that and related Greek terms we get such English words as evangelize, evangelist, and evangelical. The phrase in our text might therefore be rendered, He came and gospeled, or evangelized, peace.

The heavenly announcement of Jesus’ birth was, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). Those with whom the Lord is pleased are those who trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. As stated in verse 13 and explained above, those who were far away are Gentiles and those who were near are Jews. Every person, Jew and Gentile alike, has access to God’s peace through Christ.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6), who promised His disciples, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you” (John 14:27). Like their Master, His disciples are also to be peacemakers (Matt. 5:9) and proclaimers of peace. When He sent out the seventy He commissioned them: “Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you” (Luke 10:5-6). Peace surrounded the ministry of Jesus as an aura that continually blessed those who believed in Him. Among His last words to His disciples were, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace” (John 16:33). The ministry of the apostles and other preachers of the early church was characterized by “preaching peace through Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:36). The ministry of the Holy Spirit is characterized by the giving of “love, joy, peace,” and the other spiritual fruit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23. God’s kingdom itself is characterized by “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). The God of peace (1 Cor. 14:33; Heb. 13:20) calls His people to peace (1 Cor. 7:15).

ACCESS TO GOD

for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (2:18)

When we have Jesus Christ (Him) we also have access by the Spirit to the Father. The resources of the entire Trinity are ours the moment we receive Christ. It is not just a judicial reconciliation but an actual intimate relationship with practical value as we bring our needs to the Father.

Prosagōgē (access) is used only three times in the New Testament, in each case referring to the believer’s access to God (see also Rom. 5:2; Eph. 3:12). In ancient times a related word was used to describe the court official who introduced persons to the king. They gave access to the monarch. The term itself carries the idea not of possessing access in our own right but of being granted the right to come to God with boldness, knowing we will be welcomed. It is only through our Savior’s shedding of His blood in sacrificial death on Calvary and by faith in Him that we have union in His Holy Spirit and have access to the Father. The Spirit is at work to draw us continually to God (Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:6-7). Both and one spirit emphasize again the commonality of Jew and Gentile. The work of Christ and the establishment of His church reach to all men.

Although in John 10 Jesus spoke of Himself both as the Good Shepherd and as the door to the sheepfold (vv. 1-14), He was not mixing metaphors. A Palestinian shepherd brought his sheep into the pen at night or erected a temporary fence of stones, wood, or mud if he was away from home. After he put the sheep inside, counted them carefully, and put oil on their wounds from briars or sharp rocks, he lay across the narrow opening that served as a door. The shepherd himself was the door.

The only access into God’s presence, the only door into the sheepfold of His kingdom, is through His Son. But it is a wonderful and glorious access that can never be taken from us. We can always “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). Through God’s divine Son we, too, become His sons. Consequently we “have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but… a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:15).

Those who once were socially and spiritually alienated are in Christ united with God and with each other. Because they have Christ they have both peace and access in one Spirit to the Father. They have an Introducer who presents them at the heavenly throne of God, before whom they can come at any time. They can now come to God as their own Father, knowing that He no longer judges or condemns but only forgives and blesses. Even His discipline is an act of love, given to cleanse and restore His precious children to purity and spiritual richness.

CLOSING SUMMARY

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (2:19-22)

Paul closes his discussion of the marvelous unity of the Body of Christ by giving three metaphors to illustrate it. In the picture of fellow citizens he shows how Jew and Gentile have become part of the same kingdom. In the picture of God’s household he shows how all believers are one spiritual family in Christ. In the picture of a holy temple in the Lord he shows that all believers are together a habitation for God.

UNITED IN GOD’S KINGDOM

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, (2:19a)

Whether believers were previously apart from God and His people or whether they were previously nearby, they became one in Jesus Christ. Whether they were former strangers and outcasts or former aliens and guests, all believers in Christ become fellow citizens of God’s kingdom with the saints—the believers from every age who have trusted in God. God’s kingdom has no strangers or aliens, no second-class citizens. “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20), Paul declares, and the only citizens of heaven are God’s saints.

UNITED IN GODS FAMILY

and are of God’s household, (2:19b)

As if being members of His divine kingdom were not enough, God’s gracious work in Christ draws us even closer and makes us members of God’s household. Because we have identified ourselves with His Son by faith, God now sees us and treats us exactly as He sees and treats His Son—with infinite love. Because the Father cannot give anything but His best to the Son, He cannot give anything but His best to those who are in His Son. “Both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father,” the writer of Hebrews tells us, “for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. … Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are” (2:11; 3:6; Rom. 8:17).

Heavenly citizenship and family membership are not distinct roles or positions but simply different views of the same reality, because every kingdom citizen is a family member and every family member is a kingdom citizen.

If believers have no distinctions before God, they should have no distinctions among themselves. We are fellow citizens and fellow family members, equal in every spiritual way before God. If God accepts each one of us, how can we not accept each other?

UNITED IN GOD’S TEMPLE

having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (2:20-22)

The foundation of the apostles and prophets refers to the divine revelation that they taught, which in its written form is the New Testament. Because the Greek genitive case appears to be used in the subjective sense, signifying the originating agency, the meaning is not that the apostles and prophets were themselves the foundation—though in a certain sense they were—but that they laid the foundation. Paul spoke of himself as “a wise master builder” who “laid a foundation” and went on to say, “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:10-11; cf. Rom. 15:20). These are New Testament prophets, as indicated by the facts that they are listed after the apostles and are part of the building of the church of Jesus Christ (cf. 3:5; 4:11). Their unique function was to authoritatively speak the word of God to the church in the years before the New Testament canon was complete. The fact that they are identified with the foundation reveals that they were limited to that formative period. As 4:11 shows, they completed their work and gave way to “evangelists, and … pastors and teachers.”

The corner stone of the foundation is Christ Jesus Himself (see Isa. 28:16; Ps. 118:22; Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11). The cornerstone was the major structural part of ancient buildings. It had to be strong enough to support what was built on it, and it had to be precisely laid, because every other part of the structure was oriented to it. The cornerstone was the support, the orienter, and the unifier of the entire building. That is what Jesus Christ is to God’s kingdom, God’s family, and God’s building.

Through Isaiah, God declared, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed” (Isa. 28:16). After quoting that passage, Peter says, “This precious value, then, is for you who believe…. you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Pet. 2:7, 9).

It is Christ Jesus Himself as the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Sunarmologeō (fitted together) refers to the careful joining of every component of a piece of furniture, wall, building, or other structure. Every part is precisely cut to fit snugly, strongly, and beautifully with every other part. Nothing is out of place, defective, misshapen, or inappropriate. Because it is Christ’s building, the church is perfect, spotless, without defect or blemish. And that is how He will one day present the church, His own holy temple, to Himself (Eph. 5:27).

Christ’s Body, however, will not be complete until every person who will believe in Him has done so. Every new believer is a new stone in Christ’s building, His holy temple. Thus Paul says the temple is growing because believers are continually being added.

Many cathedrals in Europe have been under construction for hundreds of years. In a continuing process, new rooms, alcoves, chapels, and so forth are built. That is the way with the church of Jesus Christ. It is in a continual state of construction as each new saint becomes a new stone. “You also, as living stones,” Peter said, “are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5). As kingdom citizens, family members, and living stones, believers in Jesus Christ are a holy priesthood who offer up spiritual sacrifices in God’s holy temple. As a living, functioning, and precious part of that temple, we also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit (see also 2 Cor. 6:16).

The term a dwelling (katoikētērion) carries the idea of a permanent home. God in the Spirit makes His earthly sanctuary in the church, where He takes up permanent residence as Lord. This would be a vivid perception for people living amid temples in which pagan deities were believed to dwell, as in the temple to Artemis in Ephesus (see Acts 19:23-41). But the church is no small physical chamber in which an idol is kept; it is the vast spiritual body of the redeemed, wherein resides His Spirit. (It should be noted that this is a distinct truth from that of each believer being the individual temple of the Holy Spirit, as taught in 1 Cor. 6:19-20.)

Through the blood, the suffering flesh, the cross, and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, aliens become citizens, strangers become family, idolaters become the temple of the true God, the hopeless inherit the promises of God, those without Christ become one in Christ, those far off are brought near, and the godless are reconciled to God. Therein is the reconciliation of men to God and of men to men.